In Melbourne

In Melbourne for the next 40 days on paternity leave...

I expect to run around 3 times a week as a way to manage family time. Wife is on her 37/38th week, so the baby could on his way out any day now.

I only plan to post my blog once every 3 runs, so this could be once every 7 to 10 days.

Tues, 11 Mar:
Felt a bit jaded from the recent bump in training load (from about 0km due to injury to 300k total in last 30 days). Did 3k warm up along Singapore River to the F1 track and did 4 x 1k (3:51, 3:51, 3:51, 3:41) with 2mins recovery jog. Didn't want to do more since the effort was harder than usual. Jogged slowly back home. Total 11.4k in 57mins.

Thurs, 13 Mar:
Cool and cloudy day for Singapore standard and this helped me to do my longest run since late November. After 3k slow warm up, did 2 x 8k between 4:35-4:40 pace, then 5k cool down. Happy with the effort although it was only done at around 3h:15m marathon pace. Anyway, it's a decent start in my goal to increase my long run pace to around 4:40-4:50 levels. All up, 24k in 115mins (av 4:48 pace). Flew to Melbourne on a red eye.

Mon, 16 Mar:
First run in Melbourne after 3 days off. Temp was 15c, 60% humidity, 30km/h gusty wind which made the apparent temperature around 13c. I expected a good quality run today and but it wasn't meant to be. All muscles were very stiff, perhaps it was the effect of cool weather or maybe from the three days break without running. Breathing wasn't that great either. Did 2k downhill warm up from in-laws house to Koonung trail and this made my quads a bit sore. Then ran 12k at MP (~4:25) but had to stop a few times to stretch the legs and rest, so it was more like a fartlek style run. Finished with a few strides. All up, 18.4k in 85mins (av 4:38) which excluded stoppages. Hopefully, the next run will be much be better.

Total 54k in 3 runs (4 off days in one week).